Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senator Cadell, move:

That the following matters be referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee for inquiry and report by 15 August 2024:

(a) the full effects of energy transition on regional and remote Australia; and

(b) any related matters.

It is with pleasure but an enormous amount of frustration that I move, along with my colleague Senator Cadell, for the ninth time to attempt to get a Senate inquiry into this very important matter for regional Australia.

I stand here as someone who has been a longtime supporter of renewable energy. I recall being at the opening of the Woolnorth Wind Farm on the north-west coast of Tasmania, one of the very first in the country. As a supporter of the proposed Robbins Island wind farm that's currently going through its environmental approval process, I'm not someone who is against renewable energy or the importance of renewable energy and its role in the transition that the country is currently embarking on. What I am against is the complete bulldozing of this process by this government, who promised to be open and transparent with the Australian people before the last election but continues to proceed to trample on their rights, to refuse to hear their voices or allow their voices to be heard in this place through a Senate inquiry that will look into the effects of the transition. We were told during one of our attempts last year that we didn't need to worry about this: that the government had set up its own process and that Mr Dyer was going to undertake a consultation around the country to look at the effects and report back to the government. So we really didn't need to worry—there was a process in place.

What did that process find? What came back from that process undertaken by Mr Dyer, who I met? I sat down and had a conversation with him while he was going about that process. Mr Dyer's report shows one massive fail on behalf of the government. Even the government's own report said this process and what was happening around the country wasn't working properly. This government's own report confirms that there are chronic problems, with a survey showing that a staggering 92 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with the level of engagement from project developers. The survey also found that more than 90 per cent of people were dissatisfied with the information being provided or with their concerns being resolved. How much more damning can a government's own report into the processes that currently exist be? I've spoken to some people who, like me, are huge supporters of this process. I heard from one person involved in an organisation supporting energy transition. The route of the transmission lines across their property has been changed seven times, and the consultation hadn't been adequate. This is a farmer who's supporting the process, and this is what this government are supporting.

Senator Cadell and I have tried to be very constructive with this process. We've worked with the Greens. We've spoken to the crossbench. We understand that they come from a range of perspectives, but the motions that Senator Cadell and I put up have made a very genuine attempt to be sympathetic to those concerns. Likewise, we are concerned. I have heard through evidence to a joint standing committee inquiry that the payments made to Indigenous Australians by these project proponents vary from state to state. In Queensland, a grazier will get more than an Indigenous owner will. Explain that to me. Why isn't that equal, and why is it unreasonable that this parliament investigate that? We've even been concerned about the impacts in the context of environmental concerns, which I genuinely believed that the Greens and some of the others on the crossbench—Senator David Pocock, who's opposed this all the way through—might have been interested in. When just a few weeks ago I attended a presentation in this place by a former member of the Queensland Greens, who showed the group assembled some images that had been taken on the development of some of these renewable projects in Queensland, I was gobsmacked. I've been minister for forestry on a couple of occasions. I've shadowed the forestry portfolio. I've had all sorts of accusations made against me for being a destroyer and being someone who supports the forest industry, and particularly the native forest industry, over my time in this parliament. I have not seen anything that compares to this, and it absolutely confounds me that the Greens—particularly Senator Pocock, who came in here talking about the importance of the environment—wouldn't be the same.

This particular person, who is a former member of the Greens, helped campaign to support the election of Senator Waters, so they are not a radical in that sense. But these are a couple of the points that this individual, who on his own time came to Canberra to express concerns about what's happening in northern Queensland, where there are thousands of hectares being impacted—environmental lands. This is his report: no sediment controls on the works, no erosion controls on the works, infrastructure being built in areas of concern right down the Great Dividing Range, and one project involving 1,300 hectares of prime koala habitat. I watch the ads for the WWF on television telling me that koalas might be going to go extinct and that I should donate to the WWF to prevent koalas going extinct, and they will campaign for it. Where were they? There was not one submission in the planning process for any of these developments in Far North Queensland from the WWF, the Wilderness Society, the Australia Conservation Foundation or the Environmental Defenders Office, who are being funded by this government to protect the environment—not a peep from these organisations. Not a single peep! Yet we are seeing koala habitat destroyed.

That brings me back to the question: where is the support in this chamber for these environmental impacts? We've had thousands of farmers come to Canberra on a number of occasions and come into this place to try and express their view. Their voices can't be heard. They've come from Far North Queensland to Brisbane to have their voices heard. They've gone to Sydney and Melbourne. And we've seen the results of the government's own work—92 per cent not satisfied, yet the government still has its head in the sand and refuses to allow these people's voices to be heard on the record so that we can have a sensible process for transition that is fair to the farmers, allows a sensible process of transition of the energy system, provides appropriate environmental controls and supports the communities where these things are occurring. Why won't the Greens and the crossbench support this? You really have to wonder why. There are genuine concerns by a former member of the Greens political party, who took his own time to come to Canberra to talk to us about it, yet they won't support these things. They won't support an open process that allows this to be properly investigated, and you really have to wonder why.

All that is before we get to the impact on the oceans. The government's trying to stop gas mining off New South Wales. There are probably a few seats of concern there for them. But, if you look at what's happening in Gippsland and the situation in the South East Trawl Fishery, which lands more than 20,000 tonnes of fish into the Australian market every year—by far the largest supplier of local fish to consumers in Sydney and Melbourne—that particular fishery is subject to more than 90 per cent of the marine farm impacts on commercial fishing in Gippsland.

Now, why can't their voices be heard? Why are they being silenced by the government? Why won't the crossbenchers support the coalition in a sensible approach to considering the impacts of these developments? We have tried to work cooperatively with the Greens and the crossbench. We've incorporated their concerns into our motions, and they continue to vote against it. So, you wonder why.

And when you hear what's happening in some of those windfarms up in Far North Queensland—the fact that it's all about the money, that they're paying no tax, that they're delivering no energy but are selling the credits to the gas industry—and then you look at where the money's coming from: I mean, this environmentalist from Queensland called them carpetbaggers. And if he didn't, I will, because that's what's going on. Look at the donor disclosures, particularly for Senator David Pocock, disclosing total receipts of $1.797 million into his campaign account, half of it—$856,382—coming from the carpetbaggers in the renewable energy sector, Climate 200: bought and sold, bought and delivered. 'We want our projects to go ahead. We don't want any interference. It doesn't matter about the impact on the environment. It doesn't matter about the impact on Aboriginal lands.'

Who cares about the farmers? This government doesn't. They're taxing the farmers to fund the importers of biosecurity risk, so why would they worry about what's going on on their land as it is? They're buying their water back. Why would they worry about it? Government doesn't care about farmers. It clearly doesn't care about the environment. It clearly doesn't care about Indigenous Australians, despite all the claims, because they continue to bulldozer over them and refuse to allow their voices to be heard through a Senate inquiry that Senator Cadell and I have now requested, as of today, nine times.

But we're starting to see the evidence come out anyway. They come to Canberra, they come to the chamber, they're threatened with eviction. It's outrageous the way people who are genuinely concerned about the impact on their farms, their livelihoods, their marine environments, the environmental lands and particularly Indigenous Australians are being treated by this government, who could quite easily allow a very sensible motion to be supported and a very sensible inquiry to go ahead, particularly when its own process found that 92 per cent of people were dissatisfied with what happened. It's an absolute disgrace that they won't allow this motion to go ahead. (Time expired)